"Ashlea and Gillian"

Intellectually, I would say this piece from Snacks', Tearing down the gates: Confronting the class divide in American education (2007) did an excellent job of drawing a stark contrast between the lives of Ashlea and Gillian to illustrate the concepts of "cultural, social and economic capital." I was intrigued by the Bourdieu theory he mentioned, of "habitus" and want to learn more about that.
Emotionally, I will share that the reading tapped into a time when I was confronted by that stark contrast every day, in a way that was difficult for me to process. I had two jobs. My full-time job was as an Employment Specialist at a vocational school in the Portland area, helping graduates of the program gain employment in office and computer occupations. In addition to being an Employment Specialist for the company, I was licensed vocational instructor, teaching job search skills and professional development. The overwhelming majority of our students were of very low SES, many of whom had criminal histories, were recovering drug addicts, and/or suffered from mental health challenges. The depictions of Ashlea's family so closely mirrored some of the students I worked with, that it caught me off-guard. My part-time job was in a wealthier area of Portland where I was also employed as a vocational instructor, except that I taught personal development and modeling skills for a national modeling agency and school. The overwhelming majority of those students there were from high SES backgrounds, many of whom had every advantage economically, socially and academically. Though we had students like Gillian, she would have been among those less well-off in the class.